Fa­ther of slain son wants jus­tice

As the trial over the mur­der of an 18-year-old man, late Ba­bangida Aliyu, started at the high court in Gwag­wal­ada, Abuja, his fa­ther says he wants jus­tice for his slain child’s death.

Al­haji Bala Aliyu, the fa­ther of late Ba­bangida, ex­pressed his fear that he may not get jus­tice for his son’s death, al­leg­ing that the ac­cused per­sons were try­ing to sub­vert jus­tice.

He said that the par­ents of the ac­cused per­sons were wealthy and highly placed who would not want their chil­dren to go to jail.

He said: “The way their bail was han­dled even at the crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion depart­ment (CID) com­mand gives me se­ri­ous con­cern and I’m won­der­ing if jus­tice will be done for my late son.

“The CID called and told me that the sus­pects would be charged to court, when I ar­rived the court at Gwag­wal­ada, only two of the ac­cused per­sons were in the court and the CID said one was bailed at the CID of­fice.’’

Aliyu, who could not hide his emo­tions when talk­ing about the cir­cum­stances that led to the death of his first child, ap­pealed to the author­i­ties to end killings of in­no­cent cit­i­zens by cultists.

He said that his son was killed af­ter he had an ar­gu­ment on a foot­ball field at FHA Phase 2, Karu Is­lamic School, with the ac­cused per­sons.

He said that the ar­gu­ment de­gen­er­ated into a fight be­fore the se­cu­rity man sep­a­rated the fight­ers and his son left for home. But the as­sailants fol­lowed his son home and asked his mother to hand him over to them, he added.

On hear­ing them talk­ing to his mother, Ba­bangida came to the gate and when they saw him, they pounced on him and stabbed him in the stom­ach. He was rushed to Cus­tom’s hospi­tal where he died few hours later.

“He was killed be­fore his mother at home in Fed­eral Hous­ing, Karu, by three per­sons al­leged to be cult mem­bers over a mi­nor ar­gu­ment they had on a foot­ball field on April 14, 2016’’ the fa­ther said.